recovery, jiu-jitsu vacation! :D and tourney

The week after my fight was rough, partly because I lost the fight, however I wasn’t feeling as low as I could because I’m proud of my performance. Friday – Sunday I had my eye injury and birthday parties to distract me. Monday and Tuesday I felt like I was getting sick so I just wanted to lay down. But then through Wednesday I was like, man, I really want to get back to training…. every day I’m not training is wasted, I feel.

From Tuesday, I started teaching my kids class, and nearly cried when a kid grabbed my swollen ankle. Friday I ended up helping Rick teach the older kid’s class. It just so happened that his normal coaching assistant Chris couldn’t make it for a week, so I ended up covering classes in his place. I made back the money I didn’t make because I was away from my fight! YAY MONEY!!!!!!!!!! off topic-sort of on-topic my health insurance premium just went up for no reason. *cry* I keep having this foreboding that the government is suddenly going to decide to make me back-pay all the assistance I’m getting and then I’ll owe $250 a month instead of what I’m paying now which is $55. *worry worry*

And that Friday and onward, I started rolling lightly with people while wearing the awesome grappling shin guards that Dragon Do sent me. I first got them in the package and thought, “Pfffft, there’s no way I’d wear these!” and then ended up wearing them every day. lol They are not super bulky and fit under my gi pants! Dude, Jennifer kicked me only like twice, but my shins were bruised up and down and so tender. I guess because I kicked her! ug.

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So that week happened and then the second week after my fight (oct 3rd-7th) I pretty much did the adult jiu-jitsu class in the morning and two kids jiu-jitsu classes at night.

SO MUCH JIU-JITSU!!!!!!!!!
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So much happiness!!

I adore jiu-jitsu. I really really want to get better at it.

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And I can’t do striking because my nose is still swollen from my fight. (it keeps getting bonked and hurt a little bit in grappling but not too much) But I make sure I do lots of striking since it’s my weak point but now I can skip it and not feel guilty. Through focusing only on jiu-jitsu now, I realized how many things I’ve forgotten or abandoned because it didn’t fit in my MMA game. The very way you MOVE is different in MMA than jiu-jitsu. You absolutely should not be on the bottom in MMA. Even black belts get stuck in bottom guard and pounded out and lose in MMA fights. But for jiu-jitsu, the majority of submissions come from there. And gi…I love gi, but I have absolutely no idea where I stand in the rankings now.

I’ve been a purple belt for 11 years, but for 8 of those years when I was in Japan, I didn’t even put it on. I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for 15 years now, and other people younger than me are getting their black belts. 🙁 I don’t just want to JUST get the belt, you know. I want the skill. if I become a black belt, I want to be able to answer ANY question. Like, Captain or Vinny or Pyle or any of the other black belts I ask a question to always have a great answer. But if someone’s like, “Roxy, how do I do Z guard?” or “what’s the best foot placement for a heel hook?” I wouldn’t know. I can do a text book heel hook but I’ve never gotten it in rolling because I haven’t really done it in ages.

I’ve been telling myself that I’d do a jiujitsu tournament after my fight. One is coming up October 15th and at first I was hesitant about doing it because my body hasn’t recovered. But my ankle isn’t swollen anymore. I’m not waking up in the middle of the night with my legs aching anymore. My face is healed. It’s just my shin bruises but I’ll suck it up. aaaand now I have to lose like 3 pounds this week. and I had ice cream yesterday. bah.

I’ve been so happy and thrilled going to Captain’s class every day.
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It was destiny that I found John Wood as my MMA coach, but I was still searching for a Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach I could apprentice myself under wholeheartedly. My learning style makes it tough for me to really click with coaches…but Captain explains everything SUPER slowly, step by step, like ten times. I think I’ve become Captain’s biggest fan. *_*

I’ve also been lifting weights every other day since Saturday the 1st, and trying to do 50 push ups a day. I’m always so frustrated with strength training. I have a hard time putting on muscle and building strength. While I have recorded slight increases on paper, it takes forever, even with me making a big effort! And how much is that really translating in my fights?! Makes me want to give up and just do things I know will have more of an effect, but focus on BJJ class training or mittwork.

I really want to give up. Not because I’m a quitter, but it’s insanity to keep doing the same thing if it’s not working!! Right? When you think about it that way, it makes sense.

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But John said work harder at it, and I do what he says. But I want to do what HE says, not what some physical trainer says. I’ve met so many physical trainers who assure me I’ll become able to do stuff I can’t, and when I try to do it, I hurt myself. So of course I’m not gonna wanna listen to them. When I’m planning out in my head how to go about this, my thoughts keep going in a circle without coming to a good resolution. GRRR. Jessy is going to share some strength training methods with me. Make a plan. Get John’s approval. Then DO IT. So if it still doesn’t make a difference, at least I can say I followed directions… and John is usually right…. so this time it should work. If he can make my striking work, a strength training plan he approves should work, right?

So yeah. I’m excited about this BJJ tournament Saturday! yay for another week of not getting punched and BJJ focus! I really wanna see how I match up with other purple belts!! So much! I’m afraid that I have high expectations of myself, despite trying to mentally lower them. This is my first tournament as a purple belt, and first tourney in 13 years!! It means a lot to me….…